Hire Central Increases Click-Throughs with Google

HireCentral found 7 percent clickthrough and additional revenue with Google AdSense.
Case study : hireCentral : www.hirecentral.com

A unit of Massachusetts Technology Corporation, hireCentral (www.hirecentral.com) is a leading network of industry-specific career and talent hubs including hireRx, hireBio, hireMedical and hireNursing. These hubs specialize in healthcare, biotech and pharmaceutical career and online recruitment tools.

By searching resumes or posting open positions, subscribing employers have access to thousands of professional candidates. They also have access to technology tools to more efficiently manage their online recruitment process. Job seekers use hireCentral to find open positions, education and career resources that suit their skills, qualifications and professional goals. In addition to job searching, hireCentral offers live discussion forums, industry education and licensing information to 250,000 unique visitors each month.

Challenge

CEO Richard Kneece advertises hireCentral through vertical trade publications and direct mail as well as Google AdWords.® All of these marketing activities bring targeted traffic to hireCentral, but in addition to advertising the site to prospective users, Kneece wanted to build revenue by running relevant advertising throughout hireCentral pages. First he tried an ad network offering category-based targeting. But that program delivered ads that were incorrectly targeted and therefore not relevant to the content on the site. As a result, they yielded very low revenue and distracted visitors with irrelevant content.

This unsatisfying outcome led Kneece to explore contextual advertising more fully, because "we saw wasted space on our own site – space we might have used for advertising. But we didn't want our pages to look like ads had taken over, especially if they were not relevant to our users. We wanted to express more of a community feeling on our pages." In the spring of 2004, hireCentral began running Google AdSense™ ads throughout the site.

Results

It was very easy to get started, Kneece says, but the real value of AdSense was apparent when he saw the ads running. "The ads really match the content in our career and talent hubs," he reports. "As a result, we are in effect providing more useful information to our visitors and subscribers. And that engenders loyalty."

Aside from that positive outcome, Kneece says hireCentral is "making money from our space now, and we weren't before. We're very happy with the revenue we're getting from AdSense." Because the ads are appealing and appropriate, traffic is consistent and the site is seeing what he describes as "a pretty high CTR of 7 percent." Equally important, Kneece observes that fi lling this ad space through AdSense "frees up our efforts to sell subscriptions," a key source of revenue.

In terms of AdSense features, Kneece appreciates the ability to block competitive ads, change ad formats to more closely match hireCentral, and channel reporting features that enable him to see which sites in the network are earning more. For example, the hireNursing hub tends to get a higher CTR and is more profitable than other sites in the network.

In all, Kneece believes he's found a useful tool to make the most of the healthcare and life sciences career network he runs. "We haven't had to touch it," he says. "AdSense runs itself." That's why he counsels other web publishers to "do the math. Put AdSense to work for your bottom line."

About Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to specific web content and search pages. With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense. Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask Jeeves, and Lycos.